Steve Jobs on following the heart and the blossoming of intuition

Steve Jobs cross-legged with the first Macintosh, in 1984.

Wisdom from Steve Jobs:

… When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

[From Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address]

But then how do we get in tune with the inner voice amidst all the noise? How does one develop the intuition?

Let’s hear from Steve Jobs himself…

If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things — that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.

[From the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson]

In fact, even before Apple happened, young Steve Jobs used to spend days in meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Center in California. It’s very clear that Jobs’ exploration of eastern spirituality during his younger days had a big influence in his life and work later on. His Zen meditation practices really poured into his work, his ability to focus on just what’s needed, his design sensibilities, passion for perfection and the way Apple has shaped up as a brand it has come to be. He found his Zen in Apple.

Today, February 24th, is Steve Jobs’ birthday.

Change gracefully

We must know at each moment how to lose everything that we may gain everything; we must be able to shed the past like a dead body that we may be reborn into a greater plenitude.

— Mother Mirra

Today is the festival of ‘Bhogi’ in parts of southern India. On this day, people discard old things and bring in the new. The festival of Bhogi paves way for the festival of ‘Pongal’ tomorrow (also celebrated in different parts of India with different names like Sankaranti, Uttarayan, etc.), which marks the beginning of a new month and new times.

Discarding the old is necessary for the new to come in. We see that with every aspect of nature… a leaf sprouts, fresh and green it sanctifies its existence by being what it is, after some time it dries, and then gracefully falls. It then becomes part of the soil, adding to the fertility of the soil so that new plants and new leaves like itself can spring forth. We see that everywhere… flowing river is healthy, but if it becomes stagnant, it becomes scum. The river has to lose itself into the sea if it has to stay alive.

The human being is no different. Every second, millions of cells in your body are dead, and million new cells are being born. Our physical appearance change over time, our thoughts change, and someday we’ll have to shed this physical identity and be born again.

But sometimes, we become too attached to certain things in life, certain mental concepts, opinions. Have you noticed that even when other people change, we are hesitant to change our opinion about them? Without shedding off the old, we keep adding things to life, keep adding concepts to the mind, it becomes heavier and heavier, after a time it becomes too heavy to carry along and it drains away all our energy. Even at this point, some people simply refuse to let it go, their attachment is too strong. But whether or not we let it go, change is the law of nature, things will be taken away, and our attachment to things can make the process very painful.

Pain is not caused by change itself, but it is caused by our attachment to things and concepts, our refusal to accept the law of change. Pain is nothing but our refusal to let it go.

We need not be afraid, there need not be pain. We simply need to acknowledge the law of change. We simply need to shed our attachment to the old, be open for the new. When we understand and apply this simple wisdom to our lives, change becomes graceful, life becomes lighter and joyful.

Photo by Jesse Kruger

You are deathless, birthless, You are the infinite spirit (Bhagavad Gita 2.22- 30)

This part of the Bhagavad Gita I like the most. Sri Krishna continues…

Just as a person gives up old worn-out garments and puts on new ones, the same way the Self gives up old and useless bodies and accepts new ones. (2.22)

This drives home the point that you are not the body. You are the Self and you have these bodies. Nothing more need be said about this (please refer the previous post s).

This (the Self) can never be cut into pieces by the weapons, nor burnt by fire, nor moistened by water, nor dried by the wind. (2.23)

This (the Self) cannot be broken, it cannot be burned, it cannot be dissolved, it cannot be dried, it is eternal, all pervading, immovable, unchangeable and eternally the same. (2.24)

This (the Self) is impersonal, inconceivable, unchangeable. Thus knowing This to be such, you don’t deserve to lament. (2.25)

These three verses emphatically states that the Self is non-physical and removes all illusions and fears that may arise due to identifying oneself with the physical body.

Okay, but what if you are not able to accept all such concepts of about the Self? All we see is the physical body and, after all, Krishna himself says the soul is inconceivable. So why try to convince oneself with such unthinkable concepts? You may think so, that’s fine. Sri Krishna answers…

Even if you take this to have constant birth and death, you still don’t deserve to lament, O mighty armed! (2.26)

For, certain is death for the born and certain is birth for the dead; therefore, over the inevitable you should not grieve. (2.27)

All beings are unmanifested in their beginning, O Bharata, manifested in their middle state and unmanifested again in their end. What is there then to grieve about? (2.28)

A lump of clay on the surface of the earth takes the form of the pot, retains the form for a while, and then it’s broken and gets back to being the mass of clay on the surface of the earth. Similarly all beings are unmanifested in the beginning, manifest in the middle state and unmanifested again in the end. What’s there to grieve?

Some see This (the Self) with amazement, some speak about This with amazement. Yet others hear about This with amazement and there are others, who even after hearing about This don’t know (understand). (2.29)

Perhaps, this verse implies that only a few actually experience the real non-physical Self. Others speak about the Self, hear about it from others, and there are many others who even after hearing don’t understand at all. So, even if you can’t understand the Self, don’t worry, you still don’t have a reason to grieve as long as you can understand that death is certain for everything that’s born.

Grief is just unnecessary. Accept the inevitable and do what needs to be done. That is it.

This Self, the indweller in the body of everyone, is always indestructible, O Arjuna! Therefore, you need not grieve for any creature. (2.30)

Okay, this quote from Swami Vivekananda sums it up all, in meaning and spirit.

Stand up and fight! Not one step back, that is the idea. Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the spheres! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? … The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. … You are infinite, deathless, birthless. Because you are infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight!

The Self neither kills, nor is it killed (Bhagavad Gita 2.17-21)

Know for certain that That which pervades all is imperishable. None can cause the destruction of That, the Imperishable. (Bhagavad Gita 2.17)

Only the material bodies of the Self are subject to destruction, it is said, while the Self itself is indestructible, immeasurable and eternal. Fight therefore, O descendant of Bharata. (2.18)

The basic thing to understand: ‘I am the body’ is a false idea. The bodies come and go, they change form, they each have a beginning and an end. The body you have now is entirely different from the body you had when you were a newborn baby. Therefore identifying oneself with the body is an illusive idea. The real Self, of which the body is just a tool, is indestructible, immeasurable and eternal.

Here is a quote from Ramakrishna Paramahamsa that helps us understand the Self by which all is pervaded.

Take the case of the infinite ocean. There is no limit to its water. Suppose a pot is immersed in it: there is water both inside and outside the pot. The jnani sees that both inside and outside there is nothing but Paramatman. Then what is this pot? It is ‘I-consciousness’. Because of the pot the water appears to be divided into two parts; because of the pot you seem to perceive an inside and an outside. One feels that way as long as this pot of ‘I’ exists. When the ‘I’ disappears, what is remains. That cannot be described in words. (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 915)

Even the idea that the material body undergoes destruction is such a false idea. Matter doesn’t come out of nothing. We know that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, it only changes from one form to another. Similarly, the basic particle of matter, call it ‘atom’ if you want, can neither be created, nor be destroyed. The particles only combine and recombine with each other to change forms. Even after the death of the physical body, the particles that made up the body don’t go away. They just disperse and recombine with other particles to form or feed up other bodies. So what is born and dies is just the idea of a particular form and the name you attach to the form. Take away the name and form and the whole idea of birth and death, creation and destruction, goes into pieces.

One who takes the Self to be the slayer and the one who thinks He is slain, neither of them knows; The Self slays not nor is He slain. (Bhagavad Gita 2.19)

This (the Self) is never born, nor does it die at any time. This has never come into being, never comes and never will come into being. This is eternal, permanent, the most ancient, is not killed when the body is being killed. (2.20)

One who knows this Self to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable, O Partha, how can that person slay or cause to be slain. (2.21)

Also, the idea of separation exists only when we identify with this body, a particular name and form. We say ‘I’ and ‘the other’ only with respect to name and form. When we understand that the identification with name and form is just an illusion, there is no more separation, there is only One. Then there is no more selfishness, there is no harming somebody else to do good for yourself. All ideas of fear, hope, worry, anxiety, desire, craving, killing, being killed, all these ideas vanish. You know yourself to be the One Self, you are the only one. With this knowledge, you live in the present and do the most appropriate thing you can do at this moment.

The motorcycle analogy to understand self (Bhagavad Gita 2.11 – 2.13)

Sri Krishna, with a smile on his face, speaks these words to Arjuna:

While speaking learned words, you grieve for what is not worthy of grief. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. (2.11)

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. (2.12)

The embodied soul, just as it continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age in this body, passes into another body (after death). The firm ones never grieve about this. (2.13)

Let us try to understand this with the help of an analogy. Say, for example, you commute half an hour by walk between your home and workplace everyday. You want to save time, so you think it would be a good idea to purchase a motorcycle. Thus an idea is born, the idea of having a vehicle that will help you save your time. After a while, the idea takes shape, you purchase a motorcycle and start using it everyday.

After a few months, some part of the motorcycle gets worn out, and you change the part. After some time, something else goes wrong with the motorcycle and you replace certain parts. So, as you use the motorcycle regularly, you keep changing different parts of the motorcylce. After a few years you have replaced most parts of the motorcycle, that it’s physically not the same motorcycle you purchased years ago. But then… physically it may have changed, but to you it’s the same motorcycle… just think about it.

And then there comes a time when the vehicle has become too old it can’t be used anymore. You throw it away and buy a new motorcycle.

The physical parts of the motorcycle may change, the motorcycle itself may be replaced, but what holds it together is the idea of having a vehicle that will help you save your time, and as long as this idea remains in your mind, you will have a motorcycle that gives shape to the idea. The motorcycle may even evolve into a car, but it’s the same original idea that manifests in all these different forms.

Now, let us go back to the 13th verse in chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord says,

The embodied soul, just as it continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age in this body, passes into another body after death. The firm ones never grieve about this.

It’s all clear now. Just as the idea of ‘having a vehicle that will help you save your time‘ passes through different states of the motorcycle from new to old, the idea passes into a different motorcycle when the old one is dead. The idea itself never dies. What’s there to grieve about that?

Now to verse 12:

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

What you refer to as ‘my motorcycle’ not the physical motorcycle made up of metals and stuff. The real motorcycle is actually the idea, the original idea of having a vehicle that will help you save your time. The idea is non-physical. There never was a time the idea did not exist. The idea has always been there, it doesn’t have any birth or death. In fact, it’s wrong to say that ‘the idea is born’. Just that that idea that’s always been there crossed your mind at a particular point of time. It will remain in your mind for sometime and then leaves you. The physical motorcycle may be destroyed, the idea may leave your mind, but the idea never ceases to be. So, what’s there to grieve?

So, if you are not the physical body that changes state from childhood to youth to old age, if you are ‘that’ which goes through these different states in this body, and ‘that’ which takes up a different body when this body dies, then what is ‘that’? What are you?